In today’s world, where drones are becoming ubiquitous, homeowners are confronting an unforeseen challenge from an unexpected source: their insurance providers. The traditional approach of insurance inspectors conducting in-person property assessments is becoming obsolete. Instead, insurance companies are embracing cutting-edge technology by deploying drones, satellites, and other advanced surveillance tools to examine properties from a bird’s-eye view. This shift in tactics has introduced a new dimension of scrutiny, leaving many homeowners uneasy about the watchful eyes monitoring their homes from the skies above, and not knowing how to respond.
Realizing that your insurance company may be actively using measures to drop your insurance policy may be shocking. Imagine waking up one day to find out your insurance policy has been canceled because a drone spotted missing shingles, moss on your roof, or debris in your yard or pool. It sounds like something out of a sci-fi novel, but it’s becoming an increasingly common reality.
Scrutiny from the Sky: The New Frontier in Home Insurance Assessments
Insurance providers are championing a technological revolution in property evaluation. They argue that cutting-edge techniques like aerial drone videography allow for swifter and more accurate appraisals of homes and lands. By leveraging advanced aerial monitoring, insurers claim they can better pinpoint potential hazards and maintain fair, balanced pricing across their customer base. This approach has proven particularly valuable in natural disasters. When nature unleashes its fury through floods, hurricanes, or forest fires, insurance companies have increasingly turned to the skies. Unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, have become their eyes in the sky, providing detailed, real-time assessments of the devastation wrought upon residential areas and individual properties.
But this approach has now grown into a whole new strategy where insurance companies are proactively looking for risks posed by homeowner actions or inactions, and using aerial drone videos to unilaterally drop a policyholder from coverage if they find that such risks are unacceptable to them.
The Shocking Reality: Your Home Under Scrutiny
Recent reports have shed light on how detailed these aerial inspections can be. In one case, a homeowner received a notice that aerial imagery had detected moss on their roof. A minor issue like this could lead to their policy being canceled if not addressed promptly.
Even more alarming are stories of homeowners whose policies were dropped due to yard debris, a damaged trampoline, or a drained swimming pool, all spotted by aerial drones.
Does the Insurance Company Care about the Accuracy of Aerial Video They Captured?
Moreover, there are questions about the accuracy and context of these aerial observations. A drone image might show missing shingles on a roof, or debris in a yard, but it can’t discern whether that’s a temporary situation or a chronic issue. If the drone was flying too high and too fast, which enables the insurance company to cover as much area in as short a period as possible, the anomalies they capture in the video may not even depict a factual situation: a branch fallen on a roof may be the shadow of the branch, not the branch itself. Similarly, what appears to be missing shingles may be a skylight. This lack of resolution in their imagery could lead to unfair assessments and decisions.
Protecting Yourself in the Age of Aerial Surveillance
So, what can homeowners do to protect themselves in this new landscape of insurance surveillance? Here are a few tips:
- Stay Proactive: Regularly inspect your property for issues that might catch an insurer’s eye from above. Use a professional, licensed aerial drone video provider to take high-resolution video of your house and property. Video taken of the same structure from different heights and angles can effectively prove the condition of that structure beyond any doubt. Review the aerial video carefully and note what appears to be a risk. Risks can be anything that you would potentially make a claim for or something that may lead to a lawsuit against you or your insurance company. The video must include the roof, the walls, the yard, the swimming pool, the hot tub, trampolines, and other structures in the yard or property.
- Eliminate or Mitigate Risks: After reviewing your aerial video, carefully assess the condition of your home and surrounding property, and compile a list of issues that require attention. Items such as dirty swimming pools, roofs with missing shingles, damaged trampolines, and tree branches overhanging your roof are just a few examples of potential risks that insurance companies may identify. Rectify these issues and then obtain a fresh aerial video showing that these risks have been mitigated or eliminated.
- Know Your Rights: Familiarize yourself with your state’s insurance regulations and policy terms. Some states have begun implementing rules about how insurers can use aerial imagery.
- Communication is Key: If you receive a notice about an issue spotted via aerial monitoring, don’t ignore it. Contact your insurer for clarification and discuss options for addressing the concern. Share your aerial video with your insurance company to support your position.
- Document Everything: Obtain detailed aerial video of your house, and your property. Keep records of all communications with your insurance company and any improvements or maintenance you perform on your property. Retain all receipts for work performed on your property.
- Consider an Independent Inspection: If you’re concerned about how your property might look from above, consider hiring an independent inspector to assess your home and provide documentation of its condition. Share the aerial video with your inspector.
- Be Consistent: As your property’s size and complexity increase, so does the importance of regular aerial documentation. The more expansive your land and the greater the number of structures it hosts, the more crucial it becomes to conduct frequent aerial surveys at timely intervals. These airborne assessments serve as a proactive measure, allowing you to identify and address any emerging issues before they escalate. By maintaining a consistent record of your property’s condition from above, you create a visual timeline that can help prevent insurance companies from using recent damage or maintenance concerns as grounds for coverage denial. This vigilant approach not only protects your investment but also strengthens your position in any potential disputes with insurers, ensuring that your property remains comprehensively covered against unforeseen events.
The Bottom Line
While aerial monitoring by insurance companies may feel like an invasion of privacy or unfair, it’s becoming increasingly common. As a homeowner, the best defense is knowledge, preparation, and timely high-resolution aerial drone video. By staying aware of these practices and maintaining your property diligently, you can help ensure that when your insurance company looks down from above, they’ll like what they see. Remember, in this new age of home insurance, what’s happening on the ground is just as important as what’s visible from the sky. Keep your property in top shape, stay informed about your rights, document with aerial video, and don’t be afraid to communicate with your insurer. Your home is your castle – make sure it looks that way from every angle.